The Boneyard
My friends often joke that I don’t need a house, just a laundry room and a storage unit. They’re probably not too far off base on that one. On the weeks I’m traveling, I get back home Friday evening, do laundry Saturday, and then pack Sunday evening for an early Monday morning departure. I did exactly that after returning from my Dallas assignment.
After a quiet weekend at home, I found myself on another pair of American Airlines flights bound for Tucson, Arizona. These were my first flights on American since the system conversion, and I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive having experienced the nightmare that was flying the new United Airlines on March 5, 2012. Early reports indicated things had proceeded pretty smoothly. As far as I could tell, everything was business as usual. My upgrades cleared as advertised and my flights departed and arrived on time. No muss, no fuss.
I arrived in Tucson just after midnight. After crashing at the airport Stay Bridge Suites, I headed out to the Pima Air and Space Museum, which was just a short drive away.
As I parked the muted roar of a turbo fan engines filled the air. I looked up in time to see a beautiful sight of two A-10s climbing out of the near by Davis Monthan Air Force Base. Davis Monthan serves as the US Air Force’s primary training base for A-10s, so there were quite a few of them buzzing around the sky at any given time.
Pima Air and Space Museum is one of the largest aviation museums in the world and boasts one of the best collections. One very unique aspect of the museum is its partnership with the US Air Force, which allows museum visitors to tour the airplane graveyard at Davis Monthan Air Force base. The tour costs just $7 extra on top of the standard museum admission of $20, which is quite the bargain in my opinion. It is definitely a must visit for any avgeek.
I was happy find that one of the first exhibits after entering the museum was the aforementioned Fairchild Republic A-10A Thunderbolt II. Like its (nick)namesake, the World War II era Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, it steady, rugged, and brought some serious firepower. While the P-47 brought eight .50 caliber Browning machine guns to table, the A-10 packs a heckuva punch with a single 30mm Gatling cannon, capable of firing 1.5 pound shells at a max rate 4,200 per minute. An one second burst can easily take out a tank.
Top Gun! Personally, I’ve never been too big of a fan of the F-14 Tomcat. It just looks too unwieldy to be a fighter. That said though, the Tomcat does boast one of the best kill ratios of any modern air superiority fighter.
A couple of interesting facts about the Vietnam War era F-4 Phantom II, it is the only combat aircraft to serve with the US Air Force, Navy, and the Marine Corps. It also the only aircraft to serve both the Blue Angels (the Navy aerobatics demonstration team) and the Thunderbirds (the Air Force demonstration team). This particular aircraft on display at Pima wears the colors of the Thunderbirds.
An A-4 Skyhawk similar to the one former Presidential candidate and (appropriately) US Senator from Arizona John McCain flew off the deck of the USS Oriskany during the Vietnam War.
The Grumman A-6 Intruder is another Vietnam War era aircraft. This particular aircraft on display is the “E” model, distinguished by the turret or little ball just forward of its nose gear which houses a forward looking infrared sensor and upgraded targeting computer. The A-6 was also the starring aircraft in the movie the Flight of the Intruder (figures), which is one of the more boring war movies I’ve ever seen. I suppose that is somewhat fitting for a rather mundane looking aircraft.
I’m not going to lie, I actually had to look up information about this particular aircraft, which is the North American A-5 Vigilante. While originally designed as a nuclear bomber capable of taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier, the majority were converted into reconnaissance aircraft after a major shift in strategy. As far as I can remember, this was my first time ever seeing one.
In addition to a vast array of military aircraft, the museum also has several commercial airliners on display, including a Boeing 737-300. This particular aircraft flew for China Southern for 19 years under the registration B-2921. It was returned to Boeing in 2012, presumably due to China Southern’s fleet modernization efforts. It was then re-registered N759BA and stored for a couple of years before being put on display at Pima.
The other noteworthy commercial aircraft on display is none other than N787EX, the second 787-8 Dreamliner ever built. It was originally intended to be delivered to the excellent All Nippon Airlines, whose colors it still wears today. However, the early build 787-8s were significantly overweight and did not meet the performance standards Boeing promised. So Boeing bit the bullet and used the early Dreamliners just for test flights and retired them. Thuse, N787EX ended up in Pima. It was very cool seeing this plane up close.
I would have loved to explore the exhibits more, but it was time to head back to the main entrance for my tour of the airplane graveyard or “boneyard” as it is affectionately called. As I mentioned earlier, the boneyard is located just a little ways down the road at Davis Montham Air Force base, and is operated by the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. The mission of the 309th is more or less to preserve the aircraft either for future use or for spare parts. The 309th also runs the tours of boneyard in conjunction with Pima Air and Space Museum.
A few minutes before 9AM, a tour bus arrived at the main entrance to pick the tour group up. We were entering an active military base, so picture IDs were recorded at the time of ticket purchase and then checked again when we boarded the bus. Our tour guide greeted everyone individually as we boarded the bus. He proved to be a super friendly and knowledgeable during the tour. Once underway, the two very simple rules were explained to us. While cell phones could be used as cameras, they had to be in airplane mode. Picture taking was allowed, even encouraged, except for when the bus was going through base security. Fair enough.
The ride from the museum to the entrance of the boneyard took about 20 minutes. The sight of rows and rows of aircraft just parked there was impressive.
A combination of a favorable climate and geography made south Arizona the ideal spot for such an operation. The dry climate helps preserves the aircraft. Also, the thick layer of rock underneath the soil eliminates the need to shore up the earth to support the weight of enormous aircraft, such as the B-52 Stratofortress.
Many of the relatively young fighters that are stored, such as the F-16 and the F-15, are being converted for use in a drone program. The now remotely controlled planes are being used for target practice by aspiring fighter pilots. While it’s sad to see such young and capable aircraft being blown out the sky for practice, it seem be the mostr cost effective method to recreate as real of a combat experience as possible.
While it is technically an Air Force operation, the 309th provides services to all branches of the military.
This particular aircraft stuck out like a sore thumb amongst rows and rows of military aircraft. A quick Google search of the registration, TF-ATF, shows this Boeing 707-358 was delivered to El Al Israel Airlines in 1969. It toiled with El Al for 20 years until it was retired in 1989 and sent to Davis Monthan where it was scrapped for parts for US Air Force KC-135 and E-3 aircraft. Both KC-135 and E-3 share the same airframe as the civilian 707. As it stands today, it looks like all usable parts of TF-ATF have been cannibalized.
When an aircraft first arrives at Davis Monthan to be stored, the first stop is here at the wash station. As the name implies, the aircraft is given a thorough hose down to remove any contaminates.
The next stop is at the morbid sounding “flesh farm”. Here, the aircraft’s guts are removed, including avionics, engines, and control surfaces. The remaining movable parts are then coated with grease for preservation. Two layers of protective material are applied to the more sensitive sections of the aircraft, such as the engines intakes and cockpit canopy/windows. This helps keep the interior of the aircraft cool, and thereby helps preserve it. On average, the protective material can lower the interior temperature can lower the temperature of the aircraft by 20 degrees compared to the ambient temperature. That said, not everything going on at flesh farm is bad. The two F-16s seen in the picture below are being reconditioned and prepared for shipment to the Turkish Air Force.
At the conclusion of the boneyard tour, we were dropped back off at the main entrance of Pima. While I could have spent days at the museum, there was that little matter of work to attend to. Something about not getting paid if I didn’t work. So I grabbed a little lunch and hopped into my rented Buick LaCrosse to make the short drive north to Phoenix.
My conference was actually being held in Scottsdale, a suburb just north of Phoenix. Since I wasn’t a member of the loyalty program affiliated with the host hotel, I opted to stay at the nearby Hyatt Regency Scottsdale. There my Diamond status netted me a slightly better room, gratis breakfast, and a nice chunk of Gold Passport points.
When I was a kid, a good portion of our family travels revolved around the conferences my dad attended. I thought it was so cool to be able to go these conferences and see new places. Fast forward 10 or so years, I attended my first conference. I was pretty excited to be attending, with so many great childhood memories from these events. What I didn’t remember was that when I was out and about having a grand old time, my dad was actually attending said conference.
I got my little attendee badge, and rocked it like a boss I might add. But then I went to my first session, and whatever warm childhood memories I had went right out the window after sitting through that soul sucking presentation. This particular conference I attended in Arizona was actually pretty good. Overall though, it was informative and a great opportunity to network. That said, it did have its fair share of soul sucking sessions, which made it seem like time stood still. But I survived the week. Eventually, Friday afternoon rolled around and it was time to head home. Everything had gone super smooth, from checking out to traffic and then returning the rental car. But I hit a bit of snag as I was clearing security. I usually pat down my pockets before I enter the mental detector to make sure I didn’t forget anything in them. When I patted down my right pocket, I felt something in there and pulled out my rental car keys.
GGAAHHH. The car I rented had push button start, and I completely forgot to leave the key fob in the cup holder. At this point, I only had 10 minutes prior to boarding but I stupidly decided to try to return the key. I got out of the security line, and ran back to the shuttle bus area as the rental car shuttle busses typically have key drop boxes. However, the shuttle bus driver wasn’t having it and refused to let me on the bus unless I was headed to the rental center. Well I certainly didn’t have time for that, so I called National to see what I could do. The nice representative helped me make arrangements for me to mail the keys back. Welp, I should have thought of that first. Now it was time to race back to security, where the line was thankfully short. I made it to the gate just before the 10 minutes before departure mark, when they would have likely given my upgraded seat away.
American Airlines 594
Phoenix to Houston Intercontinental
Depart: 4:00 PM
Arrive: 10:31 PM
Aircraft: Airbus A319
Seat: 2F (First Class)
With all ballyhooing about US Airways being the inferior carrier, I have to say the overall level of service on legacy US Airways is consistently better than on legacy American flights. For one thing, legacy US Airways crews are much better at offering predeparture beverages. It may seem like a small inconsequential service item, but to me it’s a great way to differentiate the service from coach. With legacy American crews, it’s 50-50 whether or not a beverage will be served before pushback. Even if a beverage is served, the majority of crews use the water or orange juice tray cop out.
On this particular flight, I was the very last passenger to board the aircraft. Even so, wonderful Phoenix based flight attendant Tiffany insisted on bringing me a drink. Well it was Friday and I was more or less off work, so how about a vodka tonic with extra lime. It wasn’t a problem, and Tiffany returned in a flash with a drink in hand. This folks, is how it should be done.
We pushed back a few minutes late, and it took us awhile to taxi to the active runway given heavy traffic on the taxiway from the late afternoon bank of flights. We took off about 20 minutes after pushback. The city of Phoenix and surrounding mountains looked gorgeous in the fading evening light.
While legacy US Airways crews are great, legacy US Airways aircraft are not so great. The entire fleet is equipped with wifi but none of their narrow body aircraft have power ports. No word yet on whether or not they well be retrofitted with power ports, but here’s to hoping competitive pressures forces the new American management to do so.
Dinner service began with drinks and warmed mixed nuts. I stuck with vodka tonics, which Tiffany made sure I had plenty of. For dinner, there was a choice of a feta and kale manicotti or a petit beef filet with lobster macaroni and cheese. Meal service is one thing that did get worse post merger. Prior to September 1, 2014, meals on American were quite good, though not exceptional. Then the combined meal service standards kicked in, and meal service went into the dumps. To their credit, management did recognize their missteps when it came to catering and made some changes in recent months. These changes included new entrées which were catered on my flight that evening. While still not perfect nor good enough, it is certainly a step in the right direction.
I chose the petit beef filet, which was meh. It was bland a bit chewy. The lobster mac and cheese was good, though a bit greasy. The accompanying wedge salad was fresh, though I could have done without the fake bacon bits.
All in all it was a very pleasant flight, and a great way to cap off a busy work week.
Last edited by dat4life; Jun 7, 2016 at 9:49 pm